Letter to the editor: US, Russia facing geopolitical game

Friday, April 4, 2014 - 12:01 am

A movie should be made called “Russian Hustle.”

The fool would be the United States, which plays cold war political checkers while Russia plays cold-hearted economic chess. One must understand that Russia has overcome invasions from every sort of dominant power, including Napoleon, Hitler, the Ottomans and the Mongols and many additional invasions from countries as diverse as Poland, Japan and Sweden. So the Russians are collectively ready for the latest geopolitical game on their border.

The United States plays this game looking through the prism of the Soviet era of Russia, while the Russians see the upstart United States building a nation on African slavery just as the descendants of the Rus were freeing themselves from slavery in Crimea in 1783.

And on that rocky spit of land, emancipated Russians built their southern defense from invasion with iconic emotion tied to Sevastopol. A token comparison would be the Alamo.

So the game pieces have been set, a neo-Nazi-supported citizen movement cheer, led by an American senator, overtakes a democratically elected government riddled with crony capitalists. Instead of demanding elections, investigating and cleaning up the corrupt business influence on the Ukraine public, and rallying international unity to support the ongoing cleanup of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Russians secure Crimea and leave the United States and company holding the dirty bankrupt end of the economic stick.